Tales From Pixie Wood

A Morning Making Madeleines

Last week I bought myself a new Madeleine tin from our local bakeshop. I wish I could show you this teeny, weeny shop. Full to the rafters of every type of baking aide you could ever wish to use. Each and every square inch of this tiny place is covered, including the ceiling, with treasures.

I opted for the silicon version of the baking tray but may pop back and get the metal tin as I do like the romance attached to that version.

Anyway, I had this notion that I wanted to spend a few mornings perfecting the art of the Madeleine, I'm not quite sure if I managed it but it was certainly a lovely way to pass some time.

The thing with Madeleine's is that they are so very easy to put together and its the baking tray that does all of the fancy work for you. They take between 16 - 20 minutes to bake and in that time you can have a dozen ready to go. They also derive their roots from France and if there's something I love it's french baking.

I was speaking to a gorgeous girl yesterday who told me that her and her brother had opened up a crêperie  in France. What could be more wonderful than that!!!!

So, without further ado here is the recipe I used for making Madeleine's in the morning. I made a few batches and fiddled about with the recipe somewhat so the one I'm giving you is my own, hybrid version, of the one I started with.

English & Cup Measures
2 medium eggs (separated) - I used Cotswold Legbar
100g / half a cup Caster/Superfine Sugar
100g/1 stick unsalted butter
Grated lemon rind of three quarters of a lemon
Juice of half of that lemon
100g self - raising flour / half cup self rising flour

Pre heat your oven to 375 f/ 190 c/ gas mark 5

Mix the EGG YOLKS and sugar together thoroughly but not in to oblivion - if you are using a mixer use the paddle not the whisk attachment.Then add the melted butter, lemon juice and rind and mix those in also, being kind to the mixture and treating it firmly but not bullying it in any  way. These are delicate Madeleine's after all!

Add the flour by sieving it over the bowl itself and gently stirring it in, then add the egg whites and mix it all together well!

Its important to lightly grease the Madeleine tins with butter before you add the mixture as the pattern you are aiming for is produced on the underside of the Madeleine and that is the part that you want to remain intact.
Add the mixture to the individual moulds of your Madeleine tin stopping just before you reach the top and making sure that you have filled the mould evenly, from end to end. Bake in the middle of the oven for between 16-20 minutes and keep an eye on them. You want them to be golden yellow in colour not rustic and toasty so be brave when deciding on when to remove them. Gently pop them out of the moulds and on to a wire rack, allowing them to cool.

Put the kettle on and make a pot of tea in your best teapot, sit back and relax, for just a moment or two and admire your work.

I split my Madeline's and spread one of my favourite jams right through the middle of one entire batch.

I also dusted them with icing sugar. Baking, as most of us have gathered is that wonderful combination of science and creativity, brought together, successfully or not so, under the blazing heat of the oven or stove we use. There really is no telling, until you slide the tray gingerly from the heat, which way your mixture will turn out. For this reason I often hear "I'm a terrible baker, all of my cakes drop in the middle" or " I can't cook to save my life, nothing turns out well and baking scares me. I have SOOO many cook books though, sitting gathering dust on my shelves. The pictures are pretty I suppose"

If you have ever felt like this then I urge you to try making Madeleine's one morning for one reason and one reason only - they are easy and look très impressive!

Even if you keep the entire plate to yourself and never show a soul you'll know that you made them. And what delicious fun was had that morning, in the kitchen.

Who knows, one day Madeleine's the next Croquembouche.

I'd also like to thank the divine Erin Loechner of the DesignForMankind blog for featuring me and a corner of my home in her latest Inspiration e-zine. I am on page 6 and am so touched to have been asked to participate in something so very special. PLEASE check out Erin's wonderful blog and send her a message. She rocks!

You can also find my latest Sheerluxe article here! A big hello to the wonderful editor Georgie, who has worked her socks off to make SheerLuxe the best guide to luxury shopping online. She has also enabled me to feel like Carrie Bradshaw once a fortnight, typing away furiously and trying to get my article to her in time to meet my deadline!

Cherry xoxox

Two Tiny Babies , Two Fat Ladies ......Oh, and One Magazine Article

It always feels a little odd after having posted a personal blog. You never quite know if you've done the right thing, but the emails that have popped into my inbox over the last few days convinced me that it was all OK and I shall finish responding to them over the next two days. I had my most recent epiphany on Friday just before lunch and a true weight was lifted from my shoulders. Its now up to me to remember the decisions I made at that time.

Hanging out with the girls and taking all sorts of smiley and bath-time pictures helps. LBH had whizzed off for the night on Saturday as there was some sort of 'boy celebration' to be had. I wasted no time at all in offering to help Jo-Jo with the monkey-doodles for the night. Daisy is up there, smiling away, goodness she's gorgeous!! So full of character and thoughts and REALLY tight hugs. Jo-Jo calls her a tree frog and the minute she gripped on to my own arm and buried her head in the crook of my neck I knew exactly what she was talking about.

This is the rather wonderful Truly. I'd just bathed her and was taking her in to salt and pepper her - family speak for dust her with baby powder before dressing her for bedtime. She follows you around the room with her twinkly eyes and long lashes and when you catch her looking at you and exclaim "Truly, what are doing , you little monkey you!!!!" before diving in with kisses she smiles like its the only thing she can do.

Children are a great leveller and babies, in particular, show me personally the futility of living too far in the future and not enough in the present. Thank you girls, I'll explain it all to you one day.

So, LBH and I find ourselves with a new pace. An ambling , earnest plod is trying to replace the frenetic, wired, 18 hour days. LBH is currently reading the Sunday paper while I'm watching a double bill of Two Fat Ladies on the food channel. If you have never seen anything of these two women I urge you to buy the DVD or find a re-run being shown somewhere. They present Great Britain and its food in the most gloriously seasonal and calorific way. Clarissa and Jennifer rock my world and make me chuckle from beneath my blanket on a very cold day in March. Is anybody else a fan of this much missed pair (although I know that Clarissa published her memoirs only last year under the titile Spilling the Beans)? I'd love to know as they've reminded me that I haven't posted any foodie recipes since transfering my food blog over here.

Over the last few weeks I've been slowly uploading my photographs to Flickr. I've got a flickr badge on this blog, you can click on it and go through to my album. I've also scanned and uploaded my first ever magazine article. If you're at all interested in taking a look I have added a new button to my home page and the article can be found there.

Have a great week guys and don't forget to let me know what you think of those two fat lady cooks!

Cxoxo

The Sweet Simplicity of Happiness, Part Two : Early Baking

Cherry's Vanilla Squishy Kisses are here!

Thank you week for giving us Friday and thank you buttercream frosting for bringing me unquantifiable amounts of joy this sunny morning.

Ahhhhhhhh!!!!

My 'Release Yourself from Buttercream Addiction' program starts next week and I currently have 'Buttercream & Me : A journey through addiction' residing on my nightstand.

Have a wonderful weekend fellow darlings.

Cherry xxx

The River Cottage

LBH and I are off again. This time to Dorset. I haven't been to Dorset since I was a child so it will be nice to explore it. We are visiting The River Cottage tonight. I bought this visit as a present for LBH's birthday back in April. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is hosting the event and demonstrating how to cook various seasonal produce that his team will then cook for us to eat. We head off in the vague direction we have been told to go and find the farm hidden away far from the road. Immediately we are welcomed by one of Hugh's team and we know that from then on we are going to have a wonderful evening. Hugh himself is wandering around with some wonderfully tasty hor d'oeuvres, yellow beetroot dipped in to a very tasty aioli /mayonnaise dip goes down a treat. As does the refreshingly simple elderflower cordial. We head on in to the big barn/dining room where Hugh takes us through the preparation for the meal we will be eating later. He is a very natural teacher and at no point do you feel like you couldn't ask a question. In fact there are many useful questions asked, jokey and serious alike, and Hugh answers them with good humour, bags of knowledge and much aplomb.We are allowed to wander the gardens in the break and LBH and I walk around the vegetable patch vowing to each other that we'll have a garden like that one day. We pop our heads in the poly tunnels that we remember Hugh discussing on the show and try to sneak a look at the Saddle Back pigs that have turned in for the night. There is also an opportunity to have Hugh sign one of his books for you. I took this opportunity and very much enjoyed a brief chat. Then it's time to eat. The food, of course, was wonderful. It was fresh, seasonal, tasty, imaginative, thought about, lovingly prepared and lovingly served. It was also simple, homely, comforting and also one of the most relaxed, friendly dining experiences I have ever had. This is the key to River Cottage's success for me. What you see on the television you are able to visit. And it is just the way you wanted it to be. There is Hugh greeting his guests and answering all those questions you ever wanted ask, and there is his wonderful team right alongside him. Serving you and telling you about life there at RCHQ. A life, that once you have heard them talk about it, you want to live as well. Yes, it's very inspirational. You go away from the evening with 'warm fuzzies' that last for day and days. We have decided to look much further in to cooking with produce that is in season and are trying to be much more aware about the waste that we produce. It goes without saying that one day we’ll have an enormous vegetable garden. In fact LBH and I predicted that we would like it so much we had already booked ourselves in to a campsite in West Dorset to see the rest of the week out! One of the best risks we ever took.........